Bellefonte, Pa., November 22, 1907.
A THANKSGIVING
How golden were barley and rye
In the wind and the sun!
How amber the tassels of corn
Io the flood of the morn !—
Now the genervits mows are heaped high,
For the harvest is done!
SONG.
How ruddy were apple and pear
In the wind and the sun!
How the grape took the flush and the glint
Of the twilight's soft tint !—
Now a plentiful guerdon we share,
For the harvest is done !
For all—be it great, be it small —
That the wind and the sun
Have wrought into bounty, let praise
To the Shape: of Days
Be lifte 1 in hut and in hall,
Now the harvest is done !
BILLY AND SUSY--A THANKSGIVING
STORY.
For years the sisters, Miss Melissa Abbot
and Mis. Sarah Drew, had lived in peace
and concord, not in the same house, but in
adjoining ones, Mrs. Drew bad married
when very young, and her busband had
lived only a year. At that time the old
Abbot homestead bad been filled with an-
married sons and davghters, and the young
widow had continued to reside in the pret-
ty little cottage which ber bushand had
built for her. Now Miss Melissa had been
living alove for some years, and so had
Mrs. Drew, and people wondered why they
did not keep house together, but both were
women of habit, and did not relish any
change. Moreover, the two houses, the
square old horestead and the little cottage
with ite piazza under the overhang of the
roof, were so near that the sisters could
talk from open windows. They were de-
voted to each other. In fact, they were
considered an example of sisterly affection
for the whole village, until they were both
old woman and the advent of Billy and
Susy. Billy and Susy were two remark-
ably pretty yellow kittens; young Mira
Holmes bad brought them over one after-
noon in May, in a covered basket. She
stopped at Mrs. Drew's. Miss Melissa was
spending the afternoon there. She could
see both elderly heads at the sitting-room
windows. She knocked, and then ran in.
She was quite at home there. She kissed
both sisters, then ehe opened the baskets,
and two little yellow balls of fur flew out.
“‘Oar oat bad five,’’ said Mira, ‘and they
were 80 pretty we could not bear to have
them drowned. So we thought maybe you
would like these. Nellie Stowe bas two,
and we are going to keep one ourselves.
Would you like them?" Mira Holmes was
a very pretty, slight girl, and she had a
wistful, affectionate way of Speskivg and a
little pathetic expression. ira had been
as good as engaged to Harry Ayres, but he
had ceased to visit her some six months be-
fore. Mira went her way patiently, but
she was thinner, and pathetic, in spite of
everything. She laoghed with the old
ladies when the yellow kittens flew out of
the basket, but the laugh was as sad as a
sob, The sisters were enthusiastic over
the gifs.
‘‘Is wa= only yesterday that sister and I
were saying that we really mnst have some
cats; we are hoth overran with mice,’ de-
olared Mis. Sarah Diew, and she appro-
printed directly one of the kittens, and
folded it under her soft double chin. *‘I
will call him Billy, after the oat I had
when I first came to live here,” said sbe.
“That was a yeilow cat too.”
Miss Melissa gathered up the other kit-
ten lovely. “I will call her Susy,” ske
anvounced. ‘Youn remember I had a yel-
low cat named Susy once, sister?’
Mira did not remain very long. She
wens her way with her empty basket on
arm. As she went out of the yard between
the bridal-wreath Lusher, and the flowes-
ing almond, and the striped grass, her head
drooped wearily under her spring hat trim-
med with rosehuds.
“Poor little thing!" said Mrs. Drew,
pityingly.
Miss Melissa tossed her head. ‘‘Gocd
land!’ said she. ‘I guess she will get an-
other beau,a girl as pretty as Mira Holmes,
and if she doesn’t, it is no matter; heaux
are not everything in the world. Girls are
silly.”
Then Miss Melissa turned toward her
ellow kitten, but both sisters had pat the
ittens on the floor when they bade fare-
well to Mira, and now came disaster:
their first qoarrel. Miss Melissa gath-
ered up a kitten lovely, but Mrs. Drew in-
terupted. ‘Stop, Melissa,” said she; ‘‘that
is my kitten, that is my yellow kitten,that
ismy yellow kitten, that is Billy.”
“Why,Sarah Drew,” cried Mise Melissa,
‘‘son know bette:! You know this is
Susy.”
Mrs. Drew caught up the other yellow
kitten, and both sisters glared over the
little, soft, yellow, wriggling things.
““This is Susy,’’ declared Melissa.
*“This is Susy. You have got my cat,”
insisted Sarah.
The kittens were exactly alike to the
ordinary observer, hut not to the sisters,
“I know I have my Susy,” said Melissa.
‘I noticed partioularly her expression.’
‘Cat's bind leg!’ said Sarah, contempt-
uously. It was a sarcastic expletive pecul-
iar to her herself, and in this case more
appropriate than osual. “Talk abouta
cat having expression,’’ she added. Then
she laughed a disagreeable laugh. Sarab
bad a temper.
Mies Melissa also bad a temper, but hers
was of the tearful variety. Tears streamed
over her faded blond cheeks—tears of rage
and burt sentiment. ‘Cate have expres-
sion,’’ she declared in a hysterical voice.
‘You can talk all you want. My Susy
bad the most innocent expression, and this
one looks just like her. Precious little
Soy oat,”’ she orooned to the yellow kit-
“Susy nothing,’’ said Sarah. ‘That cat
is my Billy, and this is your precious Susy.
I wouldn’t have this kind of a cat, any-
way. They keep you always drowning
kittens or trying to give them away. Give
me Billy!” :
“You have got Billy now,” said Miss
3 edison, tearfully, * ous little Susy
‘“That cat you have is Billy,” said Sarah
Drew, with awful firmness,
“Youn have Billy, and this precious is
Suosy,’’ returned Melissa, with more senti-
ment, but equal obstinacy.
Neither would yield. Melissa, grasping
the yellow cat which she claimed, eo tighs-
ly that it clawed and mewed, wens home,
Sarah Drew thrust the remaining car
viciously into the kitchen. ‘‘Here, Abby,"
she said to the old woman who had work-
ed for her ever sinoe her marriage, ‘‘take
this miserable oat! Miss Mira brought it,
but I don’t want it.”
Abby bad beard every word of the dis-
cnssson. She always heard; she consider-
ed it ber duty. She gathered up the kit-
ten, and presently she came to the sitting:
room door.
“Miss Sarah,”’ said she.
““[ don’t want to hear a word,’’ replied
Saah, shortly and haughtily.
“Bat—"'
“I don’t want to hear a word. I know
you were listening, and you always take
everybody's part against me. Now, you
can either keep that miserable cat in the
kitchen, or drown it, [ don’t care which,
but if yon do keep it, you must dispose of
the kittens. Now, [ don’t want to hear
another word.”’
Abby, who was tall and angular asa
man, went out.
Later in the afternoon, she and Miss Me-
lissa'’s girl, who was alsv ao old woman,
had a conference out in the garden, over
the fence. Each held a yellow kitten.
They parted after a while, because Mrs.
Drew was seen standing in the kitchen door
watching them. But Maria, Miss Melissa's
waid, said in a whisper, ‘Both of them
were always awful set,”” and Abby nodded
8.
Neither of the women wae a gossip. It
was nearly a month before it leaked out
shat Melissa Abbot and Sarah Drew had
had a quarrel and were not on speaking
terms. The two led a sad life. Melissa
got no comforts from foudling ber yellow
cat, which grew in size and heanty. Abby
kept the other carefully from her mistress’s
sight, and tried to cook things to tempt
her appetite. Both sisters were very un-
bappy. They bad always been of a socia-
ble disposition, and each was afraid to ac-
cept an invitation lest she should meet
her sister. They stayed at home and mop-
ed. The curtaine were drawn over the op-
posite windows in the cottage and home-
stead. Mrs. Drew was constantly on the
alert, and never stirred ons-of-doors unless
she was quit sure that her sister was at
home aud there was no danger of meeting
ber upon the street. Each becoming alraic
of venturing abroad unless the other was
housed. Sarah Drew watched. Malissa
Abbot watched. Each kuew the otber
watched. Each knew the other so well
that she could judge ¢xactly of her sister's
state of mind from her own. Thus each
suffered doubly.
Mita Holmes heard of the estrangement,
and came to see Mrs. Drew about it. “I
am eo sorry,” eaid she, and the tears, al-
ways in her heart for her own trouble,
welled into her patient blue eyes.
“Is is vothing you are to blame for,
child,” replied Sarab Drew with dignity.
Both sisters were too proud to say anything
to each other's detriment. ‘‘It is unfortu-
pate that the cats looked so much alike,
bat I can’t see how you are responsible for
that.”
“I don’t,” admitted Mira. Then she
broke down, and wept. ‘'I am so sorry to
have been the means of parting two like
you,’ she sobbed. Her own grief stung
ber afresh as sue wept for that of the sis-
ters.
“You didn’t part us,’”’ replied Sarak
Drew. ‘It was two yellow cate that look-
ed exactly alike.” She called to Abby to
wake some tes and some spooge-cake.
When the tea and cake arrived she served
them as calmly as if there were no yellow
cats of confused identity in the world.
“Drink this tea and eat some cake,” said
she. *‘There is no sense in making your-
sell sick. This is a personal matter be-
tween my sister and myself.”
“I wish they didn’t look so muoh alike,’
sobbed Mira, trying to sip the tea.
“I can’t see how you are to blame for
that,”’ Sarah Drew said again.
“ICI bad only brought one tiger cat and
one yellow ! There were two lovely Alera
that I gave to Nellie Stowe,”’ said Mira,
pitifully.
“I never liked tiger cats ; I prefer yellow
cats, bat uot ove of this kind,’’ eaid Sarah
Drew. Then she changed the subject. *'It
18 a beautiful day,” said she, ‘‘though it is
pretty warm for so early in the season.”
She talked at length about the weather,
and how the apple trees were blooming,
then she talked aboot the fair which the
ladies of the Mission Circle were to give.
Whenever poor young Mira Holmes essay-
ed to bring up the subject of the yellow
cats, Sarah gently, but firmly, swerved her
aside.
When Mita left, she went to make a call
upon Melissa, but her call was just as de-
void of good results. Miss Melissa was
even more reserved than her sister upon
the subject. She even refused to justify
hersell in her conduot. The only thing she
did was to 011] Maria and ask ber to take
Susie out of the room. The kitten bad
been curled up in a little coil of yellow tar
upon the sofa when Mira entered. Poor
Mira had to drink another cup of tea, and
eat more sponge cake, made from the iden-
tical recipe of the other, then she went
home. On her way home she met Harry
Ayres, the young man to whom she had
been engaged, and he hardly noticed her,
simply raising his bat without a smile, as
if she had been a stranger. Mira scarcely
inclined her pretty When she reach-
ed home, however, she found a certain com-
fort in throwing herself openly into a chair
and weeping, and sobbing ont to her moth-
er how hadly she felt about Mis. Drew,
aud Miss Melissa, and the two yellow cats,
She had been obliged to conceal her tears
heretofore from her mother. Now it was a
comfort to weep hefore her for something
for which she need not he ashamed, and at
the same time weep for her own private
misery.
If Mira’s mother knew that the girl was
weeping for something besides the compli-
cation of the cats, she did not show is. She
was a very gentle, soft-voiced woman, with
beautiful ripplivg folds of yellow hair over
her ears. She stroked Mira’s head. “Don’t,
dear,” said she. ‘‘Youn are not to blame.”
of thought they wounld—Ilike the—cats,”’
sobbed Mira.
“Of course youn did, dear. Don’t feel so.
I will go over and see them myself to-mor-
row afternoon. I have an errand about
the fair, and I will see if I can’t do some-
thing.”
“Miss Melissa may be mistaken, and
Mrs. Drew may be mistaken ; nobody
knows,” said Mira.
“It they are, it will be very hard for
them to give in,” said Mrs. Holmes.
““They are nice women, but they were al-
ways very set. They were when I used to
go to school with them. Bat I will see
what I can do.”
Is ended in Mrs. Holmes drinking tea
and eating spooge-cake in both houses, and
coming away exaotly as Mira bad dove. It
ended in the same way for many others,
Many good women called, and drank tea,
and ate sponge cake, and tried to make
peace between the sisters, and came away
Jalisiuig that their effort had been fruit
Jess. [Even tbe minister's wife drank tea
and ate sponge-cake, and the minister him-
self drank, and ate, and offered prayer in
vain. After hie call the sisters did not at-
tend charoh at all. Previously they had
goue to church, but had sat in different
pews, leaving the old Abbot pew quite un-
occupied. Both Miss Melissa and Mrs.
call, watched with seeres pride and approv-
ed each other's staying at home from
church. Although at bitter enmity with
her, each sister felt that she should have
been personally mortified had she seen the
other emerge from her front door, clad in
her Sabbath bess, after the minister's call
and bis direot importanities at the throne
of Grace that they of the Abhot family
shoald see the error of their ways,
Miss Melissa caressed her yellow cat, and
said, aloud : “Well, I am glad she has
some e, il she hasn't anything else ;"’
and Mrs. Drew told Abby, after the charch
bell bad done ringing, if she had made up
her mind to keep that miserable cat, to he
sure it had pleoty of milk, and no meas,
uutil it was older, for fear of fits, and add-
ed that if she bad to keep animals that be-
longed to other folks she did not want
them neglected under her roof anyway.
That Sunday there was almost a rift in
the cloud of dissension hetween the sisters,
a rift based upon common pride and resent
ment of interference ; an unworthy rift of
uunataral saulight of forgiveness caused by
anger against another. Bat isdid not lass.
By the ext Sanday, neither expecting the
other to go to church, each realized a com-
plete return of the old bitterness. And
the bitterness, as the days and weeks went
on, caused more and more unhappiness.
The two old women were fighting with
two-edged swords, which they who love
avd fight mast always use, and every time
one inflicted a wound upon the other, she
hurt herself. People began to say that the
sisters were aging terribly. Finally the
dootor was seen stopping every day at both
houees, then the uews was spread abroad
that the sisters bad been told that they
must have a change ol scene. They were
not wealthy enough to have a change of
ecene, unless it took the form of a visit.
Then Miss Melissa went to pay her married
brother, Thomas Abbot, who lived in
Springfield, a visit, and Mrs. Drew went
to pay her married sister Eliza, who lived
in New York State, a visis, and Abby and
Maria took care of their houses and the
two yellow cats. Now and then they bad
letters from the sisters, which stated thas
they were improving in health, hut one
day the two old servants, kuee deep in cat-
pip and with their skirts catobiog in a tan-
le of sweetbrier, talking over the back
ence, agreed thas their mistresses did not
write as if they were happy.
“I know Mis’ Drew,’’ said Abhy. ‘‘She
oan set up as stiff as she’s a mind to, but
she can’t cheat me. She'll never be her-
self ag’in till she and her sister make up.
When two women have lived as many
years as they bave, and thought so much
of each other, it’s goin’ to take somethin’
more’n a quarrel over two yeller cats to
make them live this way and be jest as
chipper as if nothin’ had happened.”
“I know Miss Melissa never will be the
same,’’ said Maria. ‘‘She’s tried to make
out as if she set the earth by that cat, but
I've seen her look as if she'd like to pitch
it out of the winder.”
“It’s a pity they wouldn't neither of
them let us tell them,”’ said Ahhy.
“Well, they wouldn't. The minute I
begun to speak I was hushed up, and eo
was youn,’’ said Maria.
‘‘Yes, that's so,” said Abby. ‘‘Guess
I'll take in some of this catnip for the cat.
It won't last much longer, and I gaess I'll
dry some.”’
‘I guess I will, too, said Maria.
looks something like frost tonight.”
“There won’t he a frost unless the wind
goes down,” returned Abby. Her gray
hair whipped about her face as she picked
a great bunch of catnip.
‘‘It does blow. When do you expect
her home ?"’
‘‘She hasn't said avything about com-
ing. I shouldn't wonder if she didn’t
come before Thanksgiving. When do you
expect her?"
“I don’s know any more than you do.
Good land! It will be a queer Thanks-
giving if they don’t make up first!
“Maybe they will.”
“They're awlfal set, both of them.”
“Well,” said Abby, ‘‘they may bate
each other like poison for the rest of their
uatural lives. They may be set about that,
but there's some things they can’t be set
about, nohow.”’ :
Both women laughed as they parted, and
went their ways with bundles of catnip.
It was a week before Thanksgiviog when
Miss Mellissa came home, and Mrs, Drew
arrived the next day. It was four o'clock
in the afternoon when Melissa, with her
white hood over her head, muffled against
the bitter wind in her soft gray shawl, en
tered the south door, just as she bad been
accustomed to do. “‘So you've got home,
Sarah?” said she. She was pale and red
by turns. She looked afraid and troubled,
aod yet as if she wanted to laogh. Mrs.
Drew had much the same shifts of expres.
si
“Is
on.
“Yes,” said she. ‘‘I came on the hailf-
past three train. Sit down.”
Melissa sat down.
*“Take your things offand stay to eup-
per. Abby's making oream.of-tartar bis-
cnits. Did you have a pleasant visit at
Thomas's ?"’
“Very pleasant, thank vou.”
“How are they all? How is Thomas's
wife? Is Grace well?”
“They both seem real well. Did you
have a pleasant visit at Eliza's ?"'
“Very pleasant, thank you.”
‘How is Eliza? Is Henry getting on
well in his law-office, and how is Lizzie?’
“They all seem real well, and Henry is
smart as a whip. Eliza bas a beautiful
new winter cloak.”
There was a silence. Miss Melissa's face
reddened and paled, then redened. She
laughed nervously. “‘Oh,” she said, “I
have something to say to you, Sarah.”
“Well 2
“It’s nothing, only—I feel as it I must
tell yon, I—was right—Billy is Sasy, and
she’s got five kittens. They haven’s got
their eyes open yet.
Mrs. Drew laoghed. ‘‘Susy, is she?”
“Yes. You must have been mistaken.”
“Well, I guess I was; bus as for Billy's
petor Sar, Nell. i. Drew gave a
ong sigh. Then she laughed again, a
sharp cackle of nervous mirth,
Miss Melissa stared at her. She looked
relieved, but a little alarmed. “I'm glad
you don’t lay it up,” said she, “‘bus—"'
““Juet wait a minute. Abby!”
Abvw 3 3 Ah os: please, Abby,”
‘Bring in Abby,
said Mrs. Drew,
Melissa looked at her sister with euch
curiosity that her face assumed a vacant
ex on. Mrs. Drew continued to laugh.
Finally Melissa joined in, although unwil.
lingly. ‘‘What in the world are we laugh-
ing at I don's see,”’ she titered.
‘‘Because we've been a pair of focls,”
said Mrs. Drew, as Abby returned. She
set down on the floor before the two old
women a basket in which lay curled upa
yellow mother cat luxuriously purring love
to some yellow kittens.
“There are four of them," said Mrs.
Drew, ‘all yellow, and they bave their
eyes opened some $im2.”
Drew, on the Sunday after the minister's
Miss Melissa stared at the cat and kittens
then at her sister.
““Then—'’ she began.
“They were both Susy,” said Mrs. Drew,
“and we quarrelled over nothing at all.”
“Sarah —"'
“Well?”
“I bad made up my mind, anyway, to
come over bere and ask you to forgive me,
and take my Susy if you thought she was
Billy.”
‘‘And I had made up my mind to go over
to your house and ask you to forgive me,
and keep Billy if you thought he was
Susy,” said Mrs. Drew.
Then the two women laoghed in chorus.
“No Billy at all,” said Miss Melissa, gig-
gling like a girl.
“And two old women making themselves
ridiculous, fighting over two yellow cats,’
said Mrs, Drew.
Out in the kitchen Abby echoed their
mirth with an irrestrainable peal of laogh-
ter.
**Mira Holmes and Harry Ayres have
made up and are going to be married, Abby
tells me,’’ said Mrs. Drew. ‘I mean she
shall have two of those yellow kittens."
“I bate to have my Sosy’s drowned,”
said Melissa. ‘‘Maria says she thinks we
can give them away. They are beautiful
kistene: all yellow, just like these. Of
course, you are coming over to dinner to-
morrow, Sarah. Maria has the Thanks-
giving cooking a!l done.”
“I'd like to see my=ell doing anything
else,” said Mrs. Drew.
“I'll tell you what I'il do,” said Melis-
What?"
“I'll end over and ask Miia and ber
mother and Harry to supper to-morrow
night. I sappose they'll go to his folks to
dinner, bat maybe they'll like to come to
supper. Maria has made some chicken
ies.’
“I think that is a real good idea,’’ said
Sarah Drew, vary.
So it bappened that Thanksgiving even-
ing the old Abbot house wrs brighily light-
ed, and after supper the sisters, Mira and
her mother, and Harry Ayres all sat in
the best parlor of the old Abbot
house, before the hearth-fire. It was so
pleasant that Mira had begged nos to have
the lamp libgted. She wore ared gown,
and the firelight Plaved over her pretty
face and over ber lover’s and the two held
hands under a fold of the red gown, and
Wusked that nobody saw in the uncertain
light.
*‘I thought maybe you would like to
have two of the kittens when you begin
housekeeping,” Mrs. Drew was saying.
‘“That house your father hae bought for
you is the handeomess in the village,’’ Mise
Melissa said to Harry; ‘but it is old, and
I never saw an old house yet where there
weren't mice.”
“That is true,”’ said Mira’s mother, in
her soft voice.
“I think that is a grand idea, thank you,
Mis. Drew,’ Harry said in his pleasant,
bappy, boyish voice.
‘I #hould love to bave them, thank you,
Mrs. Drew,’ said Mira.
Neither she nor her young lover dreamed
that the love in the hearts of the two old
sisters struck, albeit free from all romance,
a note whioh chorded with their own into
true barmony of thanksgiving. —Bv Mary
E. Wilkine Freeman in Harper's Bazar.
An Epitaph Used hy Mark Twain.
Mistaken reference is so often made to
what is termed the ‘‘epitaph written by
Mark Twain for his wife,”’ that it is worth
while to =et the matter straight.
The epitaph referred to was not placed
upon the tombstone of Mr. Clemens’s wife,
but upon that of his daughter Susie. It
was not original with Mark Twain, bat
was taken by him from a little poem writ.
ten some fifteen years ago by an Australian
poet named Robert Richardson. It ap-
peared in a book of poems by Richardson,
which was published in Ediobargh, in
1593, ander the title of Willow and Wat-
tles,
The verse used as the epitaph is as fol-
lows :
Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here.
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here,
Green sod shove,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, desr heart,
Good night, good night.
The verse has so often been referred to
as being Mark Twain’s own composition
that he has recently had the name of the
actnal author of it carved upon the stove.
— Advocate.
Talnted Money, Indeed.
“Clean mouey'’ is the slogan of A. Cres.
sy Morrison, who is endeavoring to create
a publio sentiment which will render im-
possible the circulation of paper and metal
currency which is “tainted” in the literal
sense of the word. He has had some bills
and coins examined by a New York bao:
teriologist, and has found that one dirty
bill, such as is handed you in change by
your grooer, or hutoher, is inhabited by
73,000 bacteria. Coins are less populous,
dirty pennies averaging twenty six, and
dimes forty each. There is no means of
tracing the history of this germ-laden our-
rency ; a bill may he in the pooket of a
tuberculous sweat shop tailor today, and
in toe dainty purse of a millionaire’s wife
tomorrow. The number of cases of mys-
terions illness due to this universal means
of transmitting disease can only be guessed
at, but physicians agree that it is enor-
moas.— Advocate.
Mongolian Manners and Customs,
The new railroad from Peking to Kal-
gan, in the interior of Mongolia, has been
completed as far as Han Kow, twenty-
seven miles from Peking. This is the near-
est point to the Great Wall of China, which
passes within thirteen miles of Han-Kow,
and is reached hy sedan chairs in four
hours, says the New York T¥imes.
Inexperienced travelers hire donkeys to
do the journey, because they are so much
cheaper; a chair cuvsts $4, and a donkey
ouly $1.
ese animals are abons the size of goats.
They travel very well for three or four
miles and then have to be carried or led
the remainder of the journey. Mongolia is
a long way from civilization, of any kind,
and its inhabitants are moss primitive.
A junior official of the American Lega-
tion as Peking. who was sent into the coun-
try to report upon the manners and ous-
toms of the Mongolians some years ago,
condensed the resnlt of his trip into four
words, “Manners none, customs beastly.”
"Youn and Jack sit next to each oth-
er in school, don's you, Wallie?”’
“Part of the time.”
“Only a part?”
“Yes, sir. Jaok’s standing in the oor-
per most of the time.”
‘“‘And what do you do then ?"’
. Ob, I generally stand in another ocor-
ner.
How Oid Are You!
A few days before his death Bishop Me-
Cabe wrote to the Editor of The Christian
Advocate one of bis cbaracteristic brief let-
ters, in his own band, with the comment,
*“This is vastly amusing; cannot you pnt
it in your amusement columns?’’ He bad
figured through every step in the arithmet-
ical process on the facts of his own age and
others, and after finding it true he says,
‘Is will come out #0 every time.” t
our readers try it for themselves.
One day there came to the ocvurt ol a
king a giay-baired professor who amused
the king greatly. He tol1 the mouvarch a
number of things he never knew before,
and the king was delighted. Bot finally
it came to a point where the ruler wanted
to know the age of the professor; so he
thooght of a mathematical problem.
**Ahem!" said the king; ‘*I have an in-
teresting sum for yon; it is a trial in men-
tal arithmetic. Think of the number of
the month of your birth,”
Now, the professor was sixty years old,
and had been horn two days before Christ-
mas, 80 he thought of twelve, Decemer be-
ing the twelfth month.
“Yes,” said the professor.
“Multiply it by two,” said the king.
“Yes.”
“Add tive.”
“Yes,” answered the professor, doing so.
‘““Now multiply by fifsy.”’
“Yes”
‘‘Add your age.”’
Yer.”
“Sabtract threee hundred and
five.”
Yes"
“‘Add one hundred and fifteen.”
Yes"
‘‘Aod now,’ said the king,
ask what the result is?”
“Twelve handred and sixty,” replied
the professor.
“Thank yoon,”’ said the king. “So you
Wess boro in December, sixty years ago,
e 2
‘*Why,bow in the world do you know?"
cried the professor.
“Why, retorted the king, ‘‘from your
answer—twnelve hundred and sixty. The
month of your birth was the twelfth, and
the last two figures give your age.”’
‘“‘Ha, ha, ba!”’ laughed the professor.
“‘Capital idea! I'll try it on the next per-
son. It's a polite way of finding out peo-
ple’s ages.”
sixty-
“might I
American Ostrich Farms.
The recent establishing of the Los An-
geles Ostrich Farm within the city limits
of Los Angeles gives California four ostrich
enterprises—the others heing at San Diego,
South Pasadena and San Jose.
The South African farms do not manu-
facture and retail sheir product, bus in Cali-
fornia, cays ‘‘Sanset,”’ the feathers are
grown, manafactared and retailed by the
same concern.
The initiative in the ostrich industry was
taken abous thirty years ago by Dr. Sketoh-
ley, who established a farm at Anaheim.
Later on other men imported birds and as-
sisted in establishing the business. The
greatest develop.uens of the business has
been in Arizona, where there are as present
over 2,000 birds. Their product of feath-
ers has been sold principally to New York
manafactarers.
Thereis a tendency on the part of the
ostrich feather growers to combine their ef-
forts in building up the industry and in
this way give to the Sonthwest a distinct
industry characteristic of its climate and
sunshine. At the present time fully $12,-
000,000 worth of ostrich feather goods are
sold anonally in the United States, and of
this amonnt California has sold approxi:
mately $200,000, which proves that there
is ample fieid for the California producers
to enlarge their business — McCall's.
Spanish Proverbs.
The following are some of the most per-
tinent everyday proverbs of the Spanish
ple :
**The web will grow no wider when you
have killed the epider.”
“‘God helps the early riser.”
“The wolf aud the fox never come to
bard knocks.’
‘‘He who goes to bed with dogs will get
up with fleas.”
‘Let the giver be silent and the taker
8 .
“Stabs heal, but bad words never.”
‘“A peach that is spotted will never be
potted.”
Wed with a maid that all your life
You've known and have believed.
Who rides ten leagues to find a wife
Deceives or is deceived,
“Every man in his own house, and God
in everybody's.”
‘“A long tongue leaves a short web.”
“Pray ! but swing your hammer. ”’
“When we lie in wait for a neighbor, the
devil lies in wait for us,”
“God sende the cold according to our
rags.”
The Accommodating Spanish Cow.
It was the first cow we had seen in Spain,
and she bad every right to be the haughty
creature she was. A girl led her about the
plaza at dusk, milking a thimbleful of the
rare beverage at the house of the oustom-
ers, and it is bard to say which of the three
concerned was the most proud—the one
who sold, the one who bought, or the one
who gave the milk. She of the bovine race
was decorated with an old chenille-Iringed
curtain, and,as though that was not enough
to boast of, petled along the streets a very
unruly but bouncing daughter. The calf
was tied to the tail of the cow by a ro]
and bad already learned the ineffable joy
of banging imp and being dragged by her
fond parent. Fortunately the rope was not
too long for disciplinary purposes, and
when exasperated beyond all polite admoni-
tion, the cloven hoof of the mother set
daughter upon her feet once more.—Louis
Closser Hale, in Harper's.
Artistic Hand Weaving by Cripples.
A naomber of charitable le in Bir-
miogham, England, about five years ago,
started a small baond-loom factory to pro-
vide a usefal and remunerative employ-
ment for crippled girls. Many of the deli-
cate fabrics are artistically bandwoven in
silk, serge, and flax, aod the results are
most attractive. The uct of the fac-
tory, which is also a 1 in hand weav-
ing, is acquiring a reputation for artistio
merit and quality, and she enterprise is
now paying ite way. It seems as il this
Birmingham charity should be of interest
to people who desire to help in making
oripples self-supporting and at the same
time in procuring textiles of an attractive
kind.—MecCall’s.
——— Rufus—‘‘1'd like to go on a voyage
around the world.”
Sam—*'I wouldn't; it’s bard enough to
go around the block sometimes when mam-
ma wants something.”
Hie full name was Pi Yuk Liang, but he
was always called ‘‘Pi Yuk.” He went to
school twenty-six years ago at Phillips
Academy, at Andover, in Massachusetts,
He was iu China’and had been sent to
the United States, together with a namber
of other Chivese hoya, by the Chinese gov-
ernment to be educated. While he was
learning American manners, customs and
habits, and our ways of doing things, Pi
Yok aleo learned base ball. He was nos
like most Chiaese boys, because he was not
short, but tall and shapely. Nearly six
feet he stood, and he played ball quite as
well ax he recited in Greek or in Latin.
Now, you must know that at Exeter, N.
H., a lew miles from Andover, there is also
a Phillips Academy, and every year, as
sare as June comes with its rare days, so
surely do “Exeter” and ‘‘Andover’’ play
base ball together. Moreover, the boys of
both schools would give an arm apiece any
time—almost—rather than see their nine
defeated. Pi Yuk played on the Andover
team, in the outfield, in May and June of
1881. Ivcidentally, he was ‘‘chaoge-
pitcher.’’ It is very, very sad, bat this is
to be a truthful story, aud it muss there.
fore be recorded that in the great Andover-
Exeter base ball game of that year, Pi Yuk
conld not bat. It most he set down bere
that he struck ont. He did not know what
the matter was; he only knew that he sim-
ply could not hit the ball on that special
afternoon.
The Exeter boys were not very nice to
him, withal. When he hit the air unvsnal-
ly hard, they talked ‘‘pidgin English” to
him freely, and every time he failed to his
they would laugh guite openly and loudly.
They remarked that he was ‘‘Velly poor
ball player,” and finally one of them inti-
mated quite broadly that Pi Yuk bad ‘“‘bes-
ter go back to China.” “That happened the
last time upon which he came to the bat in
that game. As he stepped up to the home
plate, bat in band, he may have heard the
advice about going back to China. He
did not say anything, but those who were
nearest to him saw that his eyes were A
ping. The very next hall that was pitop-
ed to him be met fairly with all th
strength and power and weight of his six
feet of muscle and brawn. He hit so bard
that he brought in some runs ahead of bim,
and landed safely on third base himself.
After he had gathered himself together and
dusted off his uniform, be quietly remark-
ed thas be believed that he would not re-
turn to China just yet; and the Exeter hoys
did not reply to him, Jrotably hecause no
response exactly suited to the occasion sug-
gested itsell. So it came ahout that An-
dover and Pi Yuk won that game.
Just twenty-five years later, on Tues-
day, June 26th, 1906, Yale and Harvard
played base ball together, even us Exeter
and Andover bad done in 1881, and in a
front seat in the grand stand at the Yale
field on that royal June afternoon eat ‘‘His
Exocellenoy Sir Chentung Liang-Cheng, his
imperial Chinese majesty’s envoy extra-
ordinary and minister plenipotentiary to
the United States.”” The Chinese minister
at Washington bad come to pay Yale a
visit, and the next day Yale honored him
and herself by bestowing upon him the de-
gree of LL. D. He was none other than
Pi Yuk Liang, the old Andover boy.—Ed.
J. Phelps, in July 8t. Nicholas.
Wildwood Don'ts.
Don’t buni'd a fire in the woods until all
dry leaves aud inflammable materials have
been raked away to a sale distance.
Don’t leave a smudge buining while you
are absent.
Don’t set fire to a birch tiee for the fun
of the thing.
Don’t throw down a lighted match.
»*
When you light a match be sure to extin- .
guish it before throwing it on the ground.
Don’t go away and leave yoar fire buro-
ing. Extioguish it completely before you
go.— Recreation.
— A little fellow found one alternoon
that the older pupils in the schoo! that he
attended were going off for a long tramp in
the woods. He acked to be allowed to go,
and was told he was too small, bat he beg-
ged 80 earnestly, and was so ¢ure he would
ned be tired, that be was finally given per-
mission to go.
He beld out hravely, though the last
two miles were almost too much for him.
“I am not tired,’ be said, ‘but if I only
could take off my lege and carry them
under my arms a little while I shonld be
80 glad.”
“My face is my fortune, sir, she said.”
The old rhyme rings true in that line. The
woman who has a fair face has a fortune
which many a man of wealth is glad to wed
for. It is a shame, therefore, to squander
the fortune provided by the fairy god moth-
er, Nature. Yet, we eee girls fair as the
budding roses, suddenly lose their beauty
and fade, as the rose fades when the worm
is at its heart. Face lotions, tonics, nervine,
and other things are tried, but the face
grows thin and hollow. Fortunate is such
a young woman if some friend should tell
her of the intimate relation of the health of
the womanly organs to the general health,
and point her to that almost unfailing eure
for feminine diseases, Dr. Pierce's Favorite
Presoription. This medicine works won-
ders for women in the restoration of lost:
faircess. It is a true beautifier, restoring
the womanly health, and with health are
restored the curves and dimples, the bright
eye and smooth skin which are the charms
of beauty. .
A Piece of Beach.
‘‘Oh, mamma, mamma !"’ yelled Tommy
one day last summer, as a great gusts of
wind blew some sand in his eye. ‘‘Come
guiek, I've got a piece of beach in my
eye
——A gevtleman was recently asking
some little children what deeds of kind-
ness they had performed through the week,
and one little girl said : ‘‘“We drowned
the little kittens at onr home, and I com-
forted the mother pussy.”
There are some people who think that
fresh air and ous door exercise will keep a
man in perfect health. Yet a trip through
a farming conntry will discover any num-
ber of farmers suffering with stomach trou-
ble. It’s she usual story : Too much
work, too little rest, aud uneunitable diet.
Whenever the stomach and other organs of
digestion and nutrition become diseased,
the whole body is menaced, through the
consequent lnck of nutrition and the cor-
ruption of the blood supply. Dr. Pierce's
Golden Medical Discovery cures ‘‘stomach
tronh'es,”’ renews the assimilative pow!
purifies the blood, nourishes the nerves,
gives vitality to every organ of the body.
——="‘Parker won's buy his wile a piano
player.”
“‘Says she’d spend all her time putting
on airs.’ ... Harper's Weekly.